Another Palestinian detainee dies from medical neglect while in Israeli custody

Palestinian political detainee, 49 year old Mahmoud Talal Abdullah, has died from medical neglect while in Israeli occupation custody. He is the 79^th Palestinian to do so, since the start of the genocide in Gaza.

Abdullah, who was from Jenin Refugee Camp, was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in February 2025. After his arrest, his health deteriorated significantly, and it was later revealed that he had advanced cancer. Despite medical tests confirming this, the occupation refused to release him and kept him in custody until he died. He died just one day after being transferred to Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

During his time in the Israeli occupation prisons, Abdullah was transferred from Megiddo Prison to Gilboa Prison, and later to the Ramleh Prison Clinic.

Abdullah was a former prisoner who was detained during the Second Intifada in 2002, spending two years behind bars. Before his latest arrest, he suffered from health problems, and was undergoing treatment. His re-arrest deprived him of completing his medical treatment.

Palestinian detainees targeted by medical neglect

Palestinian prisoner’s rights groups- the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, and the Commission of Detainee’s Affairs – say the Israeli occupation carries out a “systematic policy” of slowly killing prisoners, and hold it “fully responsible” for Abdullah’s death.

According to testimonies of released prisoners who have spent time in the occupation’s jails, torture– which is considered a war crime and a crime against humanity- is systematic against Palestinians in the occupation’s prisons. Prisoners are currently facing the most deadly period in the history of the prisoners’ movement since 1967. A total of 316 Palestinians are known to have been martyred in jail, and the number of withheld bodies of prisoners, before and after the genocide, has risen to 87. Of these deaths, 76 have been since October 2023.

With daily crimes ongoing inside the prisons, the number of deaths is only expected to increase. Thousands of prisoners are held in conditions lacking the most basic necessities for life, and are exposed to systematic violations including torture, starvation, physical and sexual assault, medical neglect, and the spread of infectious diseases.

There has also been field executions of dozens of detainees. Recently returned bodies, after the ceasefire agreement came into effect, show clear evidence of the huge level of brutality inflicted on many of these prisoners.

The Israeli occupation, and its accomplices and enablers needs to be held to account for these crimes against Palestinians, including prisoners. For decades, exceptional impunity has been granted to the Israeli regime by many global powers, and human rights and international law somehow become irrelevant. For too long it has been treated as though it is above the law, and this needs to come to an end.

Featured image via the Canary